I'll get into the main event in a minute, but let's start by taking our hats off to 122-pounder Rico Ramos (20-0, 11 KO) for an incredible comeback and a big-time knockout of Akifumi Shimoda (23-3-1, 10 KO) in the seventh round, claiming his first major title. That's all I can really say there, because sadly that story is pushed into the background by typical boxing bullshit.
In the main event, Erislandy Lara beat up, battered, bloodied, broke down, and busted Paul Williams over 12 rounds, clearly out-fighting Williams and obviously winning the fight. I mean obviously winning the fight. I mean obviously winning the fight.
Instead, we got Lara losing on scores of 115-114, 116-114 and 114-114. "What you see is what you get," said Williams ("40-2", 27 KO). That's a lie. A pure lie. We saw Paul Williams lose tonight. What we got was three inexperienced judges giving Paul Williams the nod in a complete farce that perfectly explains the single biggest problem in boxing today: These judges have no accountability and they're either incompetent or on the take. It's one of the two. It really is one of the two, period. Either this stuff is being completely corrupted, or the judges assigned to the fights should not be there.
This happens ALL THE TIME in boxing. It is not rare. It happens constantly. And it's to the point now where I'd forgive any single person on earth for going, "You know what? Screw this. Why am I watching this? It's not a level playing field. The favorites get the edge no matter what happens. And something stinks. So forget about boxing."
Erislandy Lara ("15-1-1", 10 KO) punished Paul Williams with left hands all night. The same left hands that knocked out Williams against Sergio Martinez last November. Williams made zero changes in his approach and paid the price all night for it. He was largely dominated. Paul Williams was tough, and he was game, but he clearly, clearly, clearly lost this fight. It was not close. You don't get rounds for staying up, and that's about the only way I can see giving Williams more than four rounds in this fight.
Bad Left Hook will have more tomorrow. I can't say a whole lot more. There are only so many ways I can say this without getting incredibly obscene, and I try to keep that off of our front page. I really do try. But this is pushing it. If a fighter like Erislandy Lara isn't going to be given a fair chance in a fight like this, no matter what he does short of knocking Paul Williams out, why should he even fight? Why should we watch? And why do we keep going out of our way to prop up this complete idiocy? We're not being a presented a sport but a physical, pre-determined drama in far too many cases. All Paul Williams had to do tonight, apparently, was not get knocked out. Well congratulations! You've done it again, boxing judges!
Remember all of this crap you put up with, and sit through, and endure, the next time some promoter whines about how hard it is to sell boxing to the public, and how they don't get enough support from the media or the fans or whatever. This sport digs its own grave constantly. Every time a few positive steps are taken, we get something like this, and it's just absurd that they expect people to buy into and believe in a sport where this happens so frequently.